Jack Ma, co-founder and executive chairman of e-commerce giant Alibaba, announced on Monday he will stand down as executive chairman of Alibaba Group on September 10, 2019. Ma will be handing over the reins to Daniel Zhang. 

Ma said he has carefully prepared the company's transition plan for 10 years. Alibaba has, on the basis of the new partner mechanism, formed a unique culture and a successor system guided by mission-driven values.

"We believe that the difficulties in enterprise succession and development can only be solved by establishing a system, forming a unique culture, and cultivating a successor system featuring a large number of talents," said Ma.

After stepping down, Ma will be more committed to education, poverty alleviation, environmental protection and public welfare.

"I want to devote myself to education, and doing what I love will make me very excited and happy," said Ma, a former English teacher.

Kitty Fok, managing director of International Data Corporation China, said the challenge for Ma's succession is to keep innovation going in the company, while bringing in new components. And the next component will be globalization.

"I think one thing about Alibaba is that they never stop innovation and they really build up new ideas like new retails, new manufacturing and things like that," she said.

She also expressed belief that the transition will go smoothly, as Ma will remain in his position for another year, and that will be enough time to really figure out all details.

As for Ma's plan to devote himself to education, Fok said a key thing Ma could help with is to combine education with artificial intelligence.

"With the technology, you can learn anything at a very fast pace…So I think it speeds up everything. What I know about Alibaba, [is that their focus] is not only about urban cities, but also rural areas. I think this is very important to change China as well. All the kids in rural areas not only have the traditional education, in fact they can even unlock the next technology which can help their life," said Fok.

Ma is among China's richest men with a net worth estimated by Forbes at 36.6 billion US dollars.

He is also the chairman of the Alibaba Poverty Alleviation Fund, founder of the Ma Yun Public Welfare Fund, and a special adviser to the Young Business and Small Business of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

He also styles himself as a spokesperson for rural teachers.

Monday is his 54th birthday and also Chinese Teachers' Day.

(CGTN's Hao Shengnan, Cao Qingqing, Li Qian and Hu Binyi contributed to the story.)